Claude Lévi-Strauss : walk among the photographs

In 1935, Claude Lévi-Strauss accepted the postion of Professor of Sociology at São Paulo in Brazil. During that year and the one that followed, he carried out several ethnographic expeditions during which he focussed on photographing the places that he saw and the people that he met. Here are some of those taken amongst the Amazonian Bororo and Caduveo. In each case, the editions are made on barium paper.

Claude Lévi-Strauss Expedition - At his camp

A woman painting ceramics with thinned chalk

A woman painting the face of a dancer

A woman with a painted face

A woman with a painted face

A woman with a painted face

A woman with a painted face

Two women in party dress

A young man in a dancing costume

A chief's headdress for a funeral dance

A chief's large crown

A native in ceremonial costume

A man in a costume for a celebration

Position of the right hand for shooting with a bow

The interior of a collective dwelling

Kejara village (Bororo)

"The Men's House"

Bringing out the mariddo

The Ewaguddu clan dance

The Ewaguddu clan dance

Dancers from the Paiwa clan

A chief's large crown

Brazil,
Bororo population,
22.5 X 29.3 cm,
PP0002081

According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, this large crown was "essential for a ritual" and corresponded to a specific demand concerning the choice of feathers, coming in part from a harpy eagle, one of the world's most powerful raptors. He wrote that "all were nearly two metres tall."